by Greg Peterson
(Marquette, Michigan) – In an ongoing effort to protect our drinking water and the national jewel Lake Superior, thousands of northern Michigan residents are expected to turn in old and unwanted pharmaceuticals on Earth Day 2007 as a volunteer environmental army opens free collection sites for the third year in a row.
Prescription medication and over-the-counter medicines will be collected across a 400 mile area at about two dozen free drop off sites across Northern Michigan during the third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep on Earth Day 2007. Federal officials say the cutting-edge clean sweep is an excellent example of productive ways to protect Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.
“The Earth Keeper Pharmaceutical Collection event, therefore, is an excellent opportunity to prevent the introduction of these chemicals into Lake Superior and other water bodies,” said Elizabeth LaPlante, senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office in Chicago, Ill
The 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep is targeting out-of-date and unwanted medications of all kinds, according to Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership.
“By addressing the issue of pharmaceuticals in our waters the Earth Keepers are once again at the forefront nationally,” said Lindquist, co-organizer of the Earth Keeper clean sweeps.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Lindquist say the reason for the clean sweep targeting medicines is that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are turning up in America’s drinking water and the Great Lakes because most treatment plants are not designed to filter out these medications.
When pills or liquid medicines are poured down the sink or flushed down the toilet they remain diluted in the water supply after treatment and these trace amounts are suspected of causing a range of health problems, according to the EPA.
“As leftover and waste pharmaceuticals get flushed down drains, research is showing that they are increasingly being detected in our lakes and rivers at levels that could be causing harm to the environment and ecosystem,” LaPlante said.
“Specifically, reproductive and development problems in aquatic species, hormonal disruption and antibiotic resistance are some concerns associated with pharmaceuticals in our wastewater,” LaPlante said.
Lindquist said that recent national studies have documented that over 80 percent of the rivers sampled “tested positive for a range of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, veterinary drugs and other medications.”
Lindquist said some urban centers have even detected “traces of pharmaceuticals in their tap water.”
Pharmaceuticals in some rivers have also been linked to behavioral and sexual mutations in species of fish, amphibians and birds, according to EPA studies. Pharmaceutical compounds known as endocrine disruptors have even been linked to neurological problems in children and increased incidence of some cancers, according to EPA studies.
Lindquist said the Earth Keeper Initiative and thus the Upper Peninsula “are ahead of the national curve” in addressing the pharmaceutical issue.
Rev. Jon Magnuson, Earth Keeper Initiative founder and co-organizer of the clean sweeps, said that combining religion and environmental protection is a perfect fit.
“This will be another step of a deepening connection between the traditions of faith and the critical challenges of the environment,” said Rev. Magnuson. “The clean sweep is one of many signs of a new awakening, an historic shift of consciousness into the mystery of God and a gentle love for the planet.”
About two dozen free drop off sites will be open across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from 9 a.m. to noon local time on Saturday April 21, 2007 (Earth Day) and most collections are at the same location of previous clean sweeps.
In 2006, over 320 tons of electronic waste (old/broken computers, cell phones etc.) were dropped off in just three hours by an estimated 10,000 U.P. residents. It took 9 semi trucks to haul the e-waste to an EPA approved recycling centers in the Lower Peninsula.
In 2005, the first clean sweep collected 45 tons of household poisons and vehicle batteries. The hazardous waste, including over two pounds of mercury, were properly disposed of in various ways according to EPA and state guidelines.
Both previous clean sweeps broke EPA collection records for the Great Lakes, organizers said. Last fall, the Earth Keeper Initiative and its partners were honored with three international awards.
The third annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep is again sponsored by nine U.P. faith communities with 130,000 members (40 percent of U.P. residents), the Superior Watershed Partnership, the Cedar Tree Institute, and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.
The leader of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community said she’s pleased that the tribe and the KBIC Department of Natural Resources is supporting and participating in the clean sweep for the third year in a row.
KBIC Tribal Council President Susan LaFernier is asking all tribe members to join fellow U.P. residents in dropping off old or unwanted pharmaceuticals on Earth Day 2007.
“We are all responsible for taking care of the precious environment that has been given to us from our Creator,” said LaFernier. “Gathering and disposing of outdated pharmaceuticals properly not only will help the environment, it will protect human and animal lives from toxic chemicals that can reach our water and soil systems.”
Rev. Magnuson said he’s proud of the dedicated volunteers because “this Earth Keeper collection will be the largest event of its kind in the country covering fifteen counties and involving hundreds of volunteers.”
“The Earth Keeper team will continue to set records for pollution prevention and Great Lakes protection on the community level,” said Rev. Magnuson, who is the head of Lutheran Campus Ministry at NMU.
The pharmaceuticals will be disposed or destroyed properly in accordance with EPA guidelines, clean sweep organizers said
The 2007 clean sweep is backed by the many U.P. pharmacists, and numerous law enforcement agencies including the DEA and Michigan Sheriff’s Association, clean sweep organizers said.
Pharmacists and law enforcement officers will be present at all collection sites to ensure security and proper collection of the pharmaceuticals, Lindquist said. Clean sweep organizers encourage law enforcement officers, pharmacists, and the public to join the effort because additional volunteers are needed, Lindquist said.
Local corporations, businesses and individuals are being asked for their financial or technical support, organizers said.
The Earth Keeper Initiative has numerous partners in coordinating the 15-county clean sweep including U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, Thrivent Financial – a Wisconsin based full service financial services and a fraternal benefit company, the NMU Environmental Science Program and many others.
Northern Michigan University EarthKeeper (NMU EK) Student Team project director Jennifer Simula said “this year’s Clean Sweep is going to be revolutionary – a collection like this is, as far as I know, unprecedented.”
The NMU EK team was created last April as the student wing of the Earth Keeper Intiative. The In addition to assisting in the annual clean sweeps, the NMU EK Student Team has numerous projects including (Adopt-A-Watershed) cleaning, testing, and developing a plan for six tributaries to three of the Great Lakes, recruiting students for chapters at three other U.P. universities, plus youth and adult outreach on practical everyday ways people can reduce human impact on the environment.
“I’m really excited, not only about the energy I’m feeling from everyone involved so far, but about the education that’s happening through all of the NMU EarthKeepers talking to everyone they know about the dangers of improperly-discarded pharmaceuticals and what they’re doing to our waterways,” said Simula, an NMU graduate student and Lutheran from Michigamme. “This is a topic that is rarely discussed – no one really knows about it.”
EK Student Team Coordinator and NMU sophomore Ashley Ormson, 20, of Negaunee said “last two years has really been mind blowing and successful.”
“We feel as if the Earth Keeper culture has really spread, not only in our region but internationally as well, and for every person that climbs on board another goal is being reached,” said Ormson, a future attorney wants to spend her junior year as a Senegal exchange student, followed by a year of service work through the Lutheran Student Movement’s Global Youth Mission.
Through the pharmaceutical clean sweep, Ormson said, the Earth Keepers “hope that we will be able to reach out to even more people in our community and spread the awareness of protecting our earth.”
NMU EK volunteer Elizabeth Bloomfield, a 20-year-old member of the Congregational Church – United Church of Christ in Owosso, MI, said she’s proud the students can do their part to protect our planet.
“I am excited about helping with the Clean Sweep because of the great success of last year, it makes homes become safer with no prescriptions getting into the hands of kids, and increases awareness about the effect of drugs getting into the waste stream and causing environmental damage,” said Bloomfield, an NMU junior whose major is environmental conservation with a minor in writing.
NMU EK Student Team member Stephen Atwood said while Americans take large amounts of widely varying prescription medications it’s “not well known how to properly dispose of the pharmaceuticals.”
“I’m especially glad that we are giving people a way to dispose of them responsibly and friendly to the environment because if these chemicals were to get into our wildlife or water supply, it could have many unexpected consequences that are not good,” said Atwood, a senior majoring in environmental science with a minor emphasis in policy.
The project involves the congregations of over 120 churches and temples representing nine faith communities (Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha’i, Jewish, and Zen Buddhist).
The faith leaders of the vast majority of U.P. churches and temples said they hope all their congregations and other residents will participate in this year’s pharmaceutical clean sweep.
Bishop Alexander K. Sample, Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette, said he is “proud that the Catholic community in the Upper Peninsula can be part of this continuing effort to care for God’s creation, which has been entrusted to our good stewardship.”
“Now that we know more about the harmful effects this has on our water systems and how certain compounds cannot be removed by purification techniques currently in use, I hope this will raise awareness of how to properly dispose of them,” said Bishop Sample, who oversees 97 U.P. parishes and missions with 65,400 members.
Catholic Earth Keeper team member Kyra Fillmore, a 29-year-old mother of two small children, said “It’s important for all people and in particular people of faith to take responsibility for the health of their neighbors and their environment.”
“We are blessed in the U.P. to be surrounded by beautiful bodies of water and supportive communities who are participating in this call for stewardship and celebration,” said Fillmore, a member of St. Louis the King Catholic Church in Harvey.
Catholic Earth Keeper team member Kelly Mathews of Big Bay said she and her husband, Chis Mathews, 45, recently cleaned out their medicine cabinets and found one bottle of prescription sinus medication that was 18 years old.
“I wonder how many people just pop open the pill container and flush the pills down the toilet,” asked Mathews, a 36-year-old mother of two who says her family switched “years ago to natural remedies” because they believe those medications are usually safer than prescription medicines.
“The results were great and the thought of knowing that I could recover from all kinds of ailments in a natural manner just made sense,” Mathews said.
Lutheran Bishop Thomas A. Skrenes of the Northern Great Lakes Synod (NGLS), said “medical prescription drugs keep people out of the hospital, help many to heal and are an important part of our health care system.”
“But like all good things – when they are abused or even just thrown away they can do damage to people and nature,” said Bishop Skrenes, the head of 91 U.P. Lutheran congregations with 40,000 members.
“We in the U.P. can protect our lakes and streams with an ounce of prevention,” Bishop Skrenes said. “Collecting and properly disposing of these medications will make a difference – this clean sweep will do just that.”
The NGLS also includes Finlandia University in Hancock, Fortune Lake Lutheran Bible Camp in Crystal Falls and Northland Lutheran Retirement Community in Marinette, WI.
A NGLS Lutheran pastor from the eastern U.P. said that “hosting clean sweeps through the churches has been a powerful way to connect our faith with our lives.”
“This has also been a great witness to the secular community who have dismissed religion as out of touch,” said Tari Stage-Harvey, pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church in St. Ignace and Trinity Lutheran Church in Brevort (combined 100 parishioners). “Our communities of faith when touched by the spirit become a power that creates amazing change.”
Lutheran Earth Keeper team member Joy Ibsen of Trout Creek warned that “drugs have side effects that are very dangerous if not properly understood and handled.”
“In a way, side effects’ is what Earth Keepers is all about – handling the side effects of our way of life,” Ibsen said. “Most of the environmental problems we have are side effects of the way we live in today’s highly technological, often toxic and overly disposable world.”
NMU EK Student Team member Anna Kerr,19, of Clarkston, MI said “a clean sweep dedicated to pharmaceutical drugs is a unique endeavor that if left undone those drugs may end up in landfills contaminating our soils and harming animals including ourselves.”
The drugs leach into the soil and water, ultimately affecting an otherwise clean environment,” said Kerr, a sophomore majoring in environmental science with a Spanish minor.
Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan (EDNM) Bishop James Kelsey said “it is common to hold onto unused or partially used medications for indefinite periods of time” adding the clean sweep protects the environment while helping to ensure that the U.P. senior population is not consuming ineffective out-of-date medicines.
“When their effective dates have expired, they can actually create a hazard, particularly for the young as well as the elderly who may have difficulty keeping track of various bottles and boxes which tend to accumulate in our medicine cabinets,” said Kelsey, who serves as Bishop for 27 Episcopal congregations with 2,500 members in the U.P.
“Hopefully, this year’s Clean Sweep will encourage us all to take stock of this clutter and provide a safe method for disposal,” Bishop Kelsey said. “Maybe through this effort, we’ll all become a bit more conscious of the hazardous waste we easily neglect around the house.”
Episcopal team member Nancy Auer of Houghton said it’s important to stop the developing problem of pharmaceuticals in America’s water supply.
“Although pharmaceuticals may seem like small unimportant products their disposal and dilution in our aquatic ecosystems is having grave impacts on aquatic organisms,” said Auer, who manages the Houghton collection site.
“The drugs we take, and their disposal, are another area of our lives we must vigilantly examine if we are to be careful stewards of earth as God calls us to be,” said Auer, associate professor in the Michigan Tech University Department of Biological Sciences.
United Methodist Church (UMC) Marquette District Superintendent (DS) Grant R. Lobb said the clean sweep is a “great example” of what can happen “when individuals with similar convictions join together” to protect the Earth.
“Much can be accomplished when men and women, students and adults work side by side to properly dispose of items that are often washed down a drain, placed in a landfill, or tossed into the forests,” said Lobb, DS of the Marquette District of the Detroit Annual Conference UMC, which has 8,372 parishioners and 60 northern Michigan congregations.
“This year’s emphasis of collecting out of date medicines will not require a great deal of heavy lifting by those who contribute and receive, but the result will be cleaner rivers, streams, lakes and tap water for all,” said Supt. Lobb, adding the clean sweep is much more personal this year. “I learned recently that I am going to be a grandfather. May our efforts help in providing a clean, healthy future for my grandchild’s entire generation.”
UMC Earth Keeper team member Rev. Charlie West said “it is good to have a way to dispose of pharmaceuticals so that they don’t get into the water, where they don’t belong.”
“The stories about deformed frogs or abnormalities in fish ought to really trouble us,” said Rev. West, pastor of the Grace UMC in Marquette and project director of the first clean sweep. “These chemicals just keep building up in our environment. It’s nice that the churches are helping keep some of them out of the water.”
Citing success of the previous clean sweeps, the head priest of the U.P. Zen Buddhist community said “this sort of vigilance and care” is needed to protect the planet adding similar projects should be “vastly expanded” by others around the world because grassroots environmental projects “must be the order of things to come.”
“The churches and temples are leading the way. Now, if only the politicians can catch up,” said Reverend Tesshin Paul Lehmberg, leader of the 15 member Lake Superior Zendo – a Marquette Zen Buddhist temple.
NMU EK Student Team member Michael Rotter, who attends the Zen Buddhist temple, said “I hope this year’s clean sweep will raise awareness for how simple things we throw away can have a such an impact on our watersheds.”
“Hopefully people in the UP will take this as a moment to learn something new and help protect the water we drink,” said Rotter, a senior majoring in botany.
For at least the third year in a row, northern Michigan’s Jewish community are turning their commitment to Tikkun Olam and Passover from a traditional observance to social action during April by participating in the clean sweep and other activities to protect the environment.
“This year’s Clean Sweep of outdated and no longer used medication demonstrates how comprehensive our commitment is to keeping our water pure and our people healthy,” said Earth Keeper team member Jacob Silver, one of 70 members of Temple Beth Sholom in Ishpeming. “Many drugs people use, particularly those with hormones, are a danger to other animals and to other people when such drugs are improperly disposed.”
Presbyterian Earth Keeper team member Lynnea Kuzak, 28, said she is fortunate to have grown up “in Marquette surrounded by the natural beauty of God’s creation.”
“To think of anything like prescription drugs polluting our precious water supply is disheartening,” said Kuzak, the director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church in Marquette. “I am careful about what prescription and over-the-counter drugs I put into my body, however, others could get into my body through the water I drink unless something is done.”
Dr. Rodney Clarken, chair of the Marquette Baha’i spiritual assembly, said he is pleased with the interfaith aspect of the clean sweeps and that Baha’ullah – the Prophet-Founder of Baha’i – stresses the importance of the “essential relationship between man and the environment.”
“Not only in the obvious benefit to others on our planet who benefit by our taking better care our physical environment, but equally by our social and spiritual working together of different people and faiths, a much needed antidote to the social and spiritual pollution that we suffer from in our world today,” said Clarken, NMU associate dean of Teacher Education and interim director of School of Education, adding there are about 40 members of Baha’i in the U.P., and 144,000 in the United States.
The clean sweep is important to the members of the Marquette Unitarian Universalist Congregation (MUUC) because it helps protect the earth, inspires others, and the Earth Keeper Initiative is on the cutting edge of trying to help solve environmental problems.
MUUC Earth Keeper team member Gail Griffith of Marquette said “the complex mixture of these chemicals, including antidepressants, hormones, blood pressure medications, antibiotics, and the like, can affect the reproductive activity of a number of aquatic species.”
“They have even been found in drinking water supplies,” Griffith said.
“I continue to be impressed by the number of faith communities across the U.P. that have been carrying out Clean Sweep activities,” Griffith said. “I think Earth Keepers are again at the forefront of environmental clean-up on Earth Day.”
The Superior Watershed Partnership has on-going programs that including Adopt-Your-Watershed, public environmental education, summer youth programs, land conservation, habitat restoration, energy conservation and numerous opportunities for volunteers to get “hands-on experience” in their communities, national parks, national forests and their local watershed, Lindquist said.
For a complete list of participating communities and Earth Keeper collection sites please visit; www.superiorwatersheds.org and click on “Earth Keepers.”
For more information on the clean sweep (or the other projects) contact the Superior Watershed Partnership at 906-228-6095 and Greg at 906-475-5068, or email: earthkeeper@charter.net
